The bottom line – sportswear is supposed to be skimpy ...

... so why might volleyballers be covering up at the Olympics?

Enthusiasm for the London 2012 Olympics plunged to a new low yesterday when it was announced that beach volleyball teams would no longer have to wear skimpy bikinis. Instead of a top “closely fitted to the body” and a pair of briefs with “a side width no greater than 7 cm” – according to the game’s official rules – players can now opt to wear a T-shirt and shorts that stop 3 cm above the knee, which, as will be agreed by most men, is practically a pair of trousers.

This change in regulation, occurring so close to this summer’s event, has thrown into chaos the plans of those hoping to take part in the great Olympic sport of ogling pretty girls from other countries as they frolic in the sand. Previous gold medallists include your husband, father and teenage sons.

The decision, while being hailed as a load of pants by British men, has been welcomed by some supporters of the sport who fear that the tiny outfits take away from the seriousness of the game, thus discouraging sponsorship deals (how many logos can you get on a skimpy two-piece?). The thumbs-up has also been given by those who felt that beach volleyball players relied too much on their sex appeal rather than talent, though – when contacted, a spokeswoman for Team GB said that top players such as Zara Dampney and Shauna Mullin would stick with the bikini: “It’s far more practical when your job involves running around on a beach, sometimes in 40C heat.”

It is unlikely that Horse Guards Parade will reach such temperatures when it is turned into a sandy oasis for the Olympics. But out of the 148 countries competing to send beach volleyball teams to the event, only a handful will be doing so in shorts and T-shirts. “I would be very surprised if many used this new rule,” says Richard Baker of the International Volleyball Federation. “We introduced it due to top-level requests from our African confederation, where some countries, through cultural and religious requirements, prefer not to play in bikinis.” Did Mr Baker have a preference of uniform as a spectator? Sadly, he would not say.

But what is a beach without a bikini? Like surfing, the sport has always been more of a lifestyle. It emerged in the early 20th century, a little more than a decade after volleyball was invented in 1895, when nets were placed on a Hawaiian beach, and gathered in popularity across the US until it joined the Olympic pantheon at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. “For me, this sport has so much momentum,” says Kerri Walsh, a US player ranked No 1 in the world. “There’s so much rallying behind it. It’s because it combines all the things you want from life: the lifestyle is beautiful, the sport is very entertaining and sexy, and it’s also very intense and world-class. All of this makes it easy for the public to relate to – people want a piece of it.”

Preferably the teeny-tiniest piece. The bottom line – if you will pardon the pun – is that athletes’ sportswear at the summer Games has always left very little to the imagination. It’s all unforgiving, skin-tight Lycra. In gymnastics, “the leotard length can not exceed the horizontal line around the leg, delineated by no more than 2cm below the base of the buttocks”. The beach volleyball girls simply attract attention because it’s like watching a Victoria’s Secret catwalk show with medals.

When heptathlete Jessica Ennis posed next to Stella McCartney last week wearing her new kit, was she not just wearing a hi-tech bikini? Has Paula Radcliffe not run a hundred marathons in the skimpiest of shorts and most cropped of tops? Isn’t Michael Phelps practically naked when he swims the butterfly in his Speedos? And as for Linford Christie… I think the world would have preferred to have been spared the details of his outfit’s contents.

Plus, in the run-up to the Games, there is no shortage of British Olympians wanting to compete in the 100m dash to get their clothes off. We have seen more of Victoria Pendleton than her bike seat, ditto Rebecca Romero, not to mention Phillips Idowu and Gregor Tait, who were shot in a series of “arty” nude photos for Powerade. Water polo player Francesca Snell posed in bondage gear for a 2012 charity calendar, while canoeist Jess Walker has been shot sprawled in saucy lingerie.

Which is not to mention the dozen female swimmers and divers from Team GB recently photographed underwater without a bikini top between them. Their dignity was covered with a spot of, um, breaststroke. I suppose that, given their athletic bodies, they’d be forgiven for wanting to show them off. Frankly, the girls of the beach volleyball teams look like prudes in comparison.